Morris Michtom

Who is Morris Michtom?

Morris Michtom was a Russian Jewish immigrant, who with his wife Rose invented the Teddy Bear.

Michtom, who arrived in New York in 1887, was selling candy in his shop at 404 Tompkins Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn by day and making stuffed animals with his wife Rose at night. The Teddy Bear came about in response to a cartoon by Clifford K. Berryman depicting Teddy Roosevelt having compassion for a bear at the end of an unsuccessful hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902. After the creation of the bear in 1902, the sale of the bears was so brisk that Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company .

Morris' daughter - named Emily - appeared as background character in over 40 episodes of the American television program Get Smart.